What Are Some Key Skills Required by A L&D Professional?

Enough has been written about developing skills in employees. But what about the skills required by the person who facilitates employee skill development? That’s correct – the L&D professional. L&D professionals develop training and development programs as well as eLearning courses and sometimes train employees themselves. What are the skills they absolutely must have in order to do so? In this article we’ll discuss these skills.

Although L&D professionals mostly work with eLearning tools and learning managements systems, and thus proficiency in these technologies is a must, there are certain professional skills barring eLearning tech-proficiency that are demanded of them. Let’s have a look.

Excellent Research Skills

Research, which in this day and age translates to “knowing your way around the internet”, is an all-important skill for an L&D professional. And we’re not talking about finding the name of that unnamed actor in a movie, but advanced analytical research involving Google operators and symbols like “and”, “or” and “not”, as well as “-” which tells the search engine to fetch results without the term written after it. And why are these research skills needed? To find the most relevant and authentic content for your eLearning courses.

Solid Communication Skills

For an effective L&D professional strong communication skills are crucial. L&D professionals will have to host seminars, take classes or deliver lectures every once in a while, so having a good command over language is a must. Being able to explain concepts, understand employee’s concerns and then offer solutions is something L&D professionals must be adept at. Make sure your communication is inspiring and engaging, and that you improve on these skills continuously.

Exceptional Organizational Skills

Organizational ability is extremely important for a L&D professional as they will need to allocate time, money and resources in the best possible way for their L&D program to succeed. In addition, building eLearning courses requires advanced organizational skills such as curating and organizing content, placing multimedia and interactivities at correct position and intervals in the course, and making sure the course flows in a linear, methodical manner. Lastly, as L&D professionals will work on several projects as once, they must be good at managing their time well, in order to ensure that deadlines are met and backlogs are avoided.

Perpetual Enthusiasm to Learn

L&D professionals are facilitators learning, but they also have to be life-long learners themselves if they want to be succeed in this field. This is a dynamic field where trends change fast, and every quarter brings a new, innovative technology or methodology. It is something L&D pros have to have, in order to keep up to date with changing trends and best practices in learning. Also, a life-long learner can empathize with other learners, as he considers himself/herself on the same path as them, that of a learner. Empathizing with learners lets an L&D professional put himself/herself in the same shoes as that of the learner they’re building the course for, and thus build a distinct, engaging course.

eLearning Tech Proficiency

Of course, an L&D professional cannot do without being an expert in all things eLearning these days. There are various eLearning authoring tools, learning management systems and video editing software that every L&D professional must know like the back of their hands, in addition to having a fair knowledge of social media marketing. All of these tools must be utilized together in an efficient way to create the perfect eLearning course. For example, when choosing an eLearning authoring tool, make sure that it plays well with the learning management system (LMS) you’ve chosen. Similarly, social media is a powerful tool to market eLearning courses internally, and have chat sessions regarding the courses which generate useful feedback.

Every L&D professional is different. Perhaps some of them might have a different set of skills than these and still be renowned professionals in the L&D field. Think of the points in this articles not as hard and fast rules, but more as guidelines for what would be some useful skills to succeed. These skills will help any L&D professional perform their duties well and push their organization forward.

If you’re organization requires custom eLearning courses tailored around their learning needs, CBLPro can help. We are an eLearning solutions provider, always in step with changing times and technology, and always a step ahead of others. Contact us @ www.cblpro.com.

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CBLPro eSolutions Private Limited (CBLPro) is a Learning Solutions Company focusing on transforming learning by the use of contemporary technologies, proved and tested articulation methodologies to provide a strong learning Read More